And Dream of Kittens, Please
by Varia Lectio
Summary: What do you do when your toddler just won't go to sleep? Well, what would Nathan Explosion do? Sequel to "DethDearest" and "DethCrush".


_**...And Dream of Kittens, Please**_

**Rating:** G

**Summary:** What do you do when your toddler just won't go to sleep? Well, what would Nathan Explosion do?

**Warning:** So deliberately, conspicuously, sweetly adorable that your teeth might just fall out. Be sure to put them under your pillow for Orthar the Tooth God.

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They spoke in hushed, almost reverent-sounding whispers, their voices low and breathy and slightly giggly, like young lovers.

"How do you know it's a girl?"

"Just do." He lightly rested his ear against the warm, hard bulge of her belly. "Yeah, it's a girl."

"Hhhm." She yawned and fondled the locks of his hair that draped down across her breasts. "So certain, then? What would you name her?"

"Dunno. 'Natey-girl', maybe. That's a good name." He looked up at her and grinned. "I'll call her that."

He felt her stiffen against him. "Speaking of children...." She was trying to keep her voice light, but he could hear the tiredness in it.

He turned and looked around, and saw what he was dreading yet expecting to see. Nate-boy, in pajamas, clutching his favorite stuffed dinosaur, staring at them with one thumb in his mouth.

"Nate-boy!" He huffed in frustration. _Fourth time tonight the kid's done that. _"Didn't I just put you to bed an hour ago? Haven't you slept?"

"I put him to bed the last time, actually. And it was more like fifteen minutes ago," Angelique said. A weary smile was pulling at one corner of her generous mouth. "I think you should do it, Nathan."

"Yeah, yeah." He got up and strode over to Nate-boy, and picked the kid up. "Come on, up to bed with ya." He carried the limp and unresisting toddler up the stairs, to the boy's bedroom.

Shifting Nate-boy to the crook of one arm, he flipped on the light. The room was decorated for a little boy and festooned with stuffed toys -- mainly of brutal animals like lions, alligators, and flesh-eating dinosaurs. Nathan did take some pride in the fact that his first-born son was into brutal things; hell, the kid's favorite movie was _Terminator 2._ You couldn't go wrong with a son who liked that... although it was frustrating that Nate-boy kept clambering out of his new bed at night. _Should pop him back in his crib just because it had bars on it,_ he thought. _Next stop is the county jail for you, buster. At least then you'd stay put._

Nate-boy didn't protest as his father laid him down into bed and tucked the covers up around him. He merely clutched his stuffed dinosaur and stared up at Nathan with those grey eyes that were so much like his mother's.

Sighing, Nathan reached up to the light-switch and turned off the room's lights. He squinted in the gloom and studied his son. Maddeningly wide-eyed, Nate-boy stared right back up at him, grey eyes huge and innocent. The kid was even smiling ever-so-slightly, and the audacious temerity of it all would have irked Nathan to no end if Nate-boy's sheer adorableness hadn't first melted his heart like a pack of Fudgesicles left on a hot frying pan.

"You... you gotta sleep sometime, buster, you know that?" Nathan said. He ruffled his son's hair gently. Sweet lord, it was so soft and fine. He remembered the first time he'd touched it when Nate-boy had been a little baby; remembered cupping that delicate skull in the palm of his hand, amazed at both the size and perfection of the boy's head and face and the sheer softness of his black hair. It had been the sleekest, silkiest thing he had ever felt in his entire life. And Nate-boy's hair still felt like that to this day. It was incredible.

"I mean," he continued, stroking the boy's hair, "you gotta sleep. You don't wanna get up tomorrow so tired that you fall over face-first into your cereal, huh? Do ya? 'Cause if you do, that's it; I'm not pulling you outta your cereal. You'll just... I dunno, be there. Forever."

The tiniest of smiles appeared on Nate-boy's delicate face, then it was gone. He shook his head just a little.

"Yeah, thought so." Nathan sighed, suddenly feeling very tired and wishing dearly that his son would feel the same. "Let's see... you want a story?"

A tiny, almost imperceptible head-shake.

"How about a song? Daddy used to sing, y'know. Long before you came along."

The boy's eyes brightened, and he grinned. It was one of those old familiar "You can't beat me, Dad" looks. Nate-boy didn't speak, but he could be very expressive when he wanted to be, and Nathan was usually pretty good at reading those expressions. He resisted the urge to sigh and shake his head, and instead wondered if he himself had been this much of a confidently arrogant little brat as a kid.

"Okay. Um." He tried to think of a lullaby that would be suitable for a three-year-old. _Hmm, sleep, go to sleep, and dream... of.... Yes!_ He remembered a dark, fog-shrouded lake, a huge crimson troll as tall as a skyscraper, a rickety boat that rattled with the sounds of acoustic instruments....

Oh, that was **perfect**. Just perfect. _Nate-boy,_ he thought triumphantly, _you don't know what you just got yourself in for...._

And so he began to sing. Very softly, very slowly, very soothingly.

"Are you getting sleepy?

Tranquilized by the tune?"

Nate-boy blinked once. His mouth pursed itself into a little moue, indicating that he realized his father was trying to pull some sort of trick on him to make him go to sleep, and didn't much like it. Nathan plowed on, regardless. This kid was going to **sleep**, so help him Sabbath.

"Little trolls must go to sleep

And dream of kittens, please..."

Nate-boy grunted softly, blinked once, then twice. They were long blinks. He twitched, as if trying to shake himself awake. Nathan allowed himself a rather smug grin. _You're not beatin' me __**that**__ easily, kid._

His fingers wandered gently through Nate-boy's hair as he sang,

"Now it's time to go to sleep...

Count your little baby sheep..."

Nate-boy yawned, whimpered as he realized he was losing the battle, and then hiccuped once, softly. His head began to loll gently to the side on his pillow. His eyes fluttered closed and then **stayed** closed.

Nathan grinned. _Finally, the kid ran outta steam. Finally!_

He mercilessly applied the _coup de grace_:

"Oh, your eyes are heavy, 'cause it's night..."

And then he realized that he didn't know how the song ended.

Nathan began to panic as his son's eyelids twitched and his little body shifted under the covers. Any second now, the kid would be back up and clambering out of bed again....

The muse of metal, if such a being existed, took pity on Nathan Explosion and gifted him with a burst of late-night inspiration. Very softly, he sang,

"Goodnight, my little boy; sleep tight."

Like the last verse of a spell, it worked its soporific magic. Nate-boy relaxed; his eyes remained closed, and his breathing was deep and even.

Nathan slid carefully off the bed and tip-toed to the door, which was open just a crack so that light from the hallway could come in. He looked back, and Nate-boy was still asleep.

He opened the door very, very slowly, slipped out, peeked back. Still asleep.

He closed the door behind him... and exhaled.

Not a peep from behind the door.

Angelique was waiting for him in the hallway, hands clasped over her stomach. "I heard," she mouthed.

He nodded.

They walked down the hallway together to their own bedroom, went in without turning on the light, and slipped into bed with barely even a rustle. They lay there together in near-darkness for a while.

Finally, Nathan whispered, in a rather miserable tone, "Now _I_ can't go to sleep. I keep imaginin' he'll be back. Right back here." He blinked up at Angelique in a beseeching fashion.

She sighed, rolled onto her back and stared up at the dark ceiling. Then she looked at him. "You know something? You're right. I feel the same way."

A pause. They exchanged worried looks. "What do we do?"

"A duet." She kissed his brow, took one of his hands and placed it on her round stomach. "This one goes out to you, me, _and_ your daughter... because now she's starting to kick just a little. Count of four; one, two, three, four."

They stared into each other's eyes and both began to sing in harmony; very softly, very slowly, very soothingly,

"Are you getting sleepy?

Tranquilized by the tune?"

"Little trolls must go to sleep

And dream of kittens, please...."

They yawned through the next verses as their eyelids began to feel mysteriously heavy.

And then, finally, _everyone_ fell asleep.

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**The End.**

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End file.
